The genre of the artist is evident from the album cover. The style of clothing that Daniel Merriweather is wearing connotes an indie/alternative rock style for example his coat. Another example of how the album cover shows the genre of the artist is Daniel Merriweather’s hair style. He has the classic indie haircut which is short back and sides, with the top left longer to style; it will usually be swept to one side. This hair style breaks the conventions of classic rock hair styles. They usually have long hair as this goes against the norms of society; and rock is all about rebellion.
The album cover has constructed a dominant reading path, your eyes naturally start at the top left and read ‘Love & War’. The next thing you read is ‘Daniel Merriweather’ as it is directly below ‘Love & War’, you then look at Daniel Merriweather himself as ‘Love & War’ and his name are slightly slanted as if they are pointing your eyes towards him. The rule of thirds is used in the album cover, the title and name of the artist are along the top line of the rule of thirds and Daniel Merriweather is situated along the right line. The title and the artists name is at the top of the album cover so when it is sitting on a shelf in a shop you can easily see it. The album cover has quite dull colours and tones; there are no bright vibrant colours, this seems to be a convention of the genre. These dull colours and tones could connote that the album is meaningful and emotional; this is reinforced by Daniel Merriweather’s facial expression he looks as if he is staring into space, deep in thought. Mise-en-scene in this album cover is obviously Daniel Merriweather, his clothes and hair style which all signify his genre; another part of the mise-en-scene will be the location. The location is New York. This signifies that Daniel Merriweather wants to try and ‘crack’ the American music market. The fact that the cover shows quite a rough looking area of New York denotes that he has to start at the bottom and work hard, otherwise it would of depicted him living the American dream. The title, ‘Love & War’, is written in black with a white background and Daniel Merriweather is written in white with a black background. They are contrasting to anchor the words ‘Love & War’ as they are two completely different and contrasting things. The font that is used for the writing could be seen as a pastiche as different artists from different genres such as Dizzee Rascal and Mark Ronson have used it. The references to popular culture are the style of Daniel Merriweather and the location. New York, along with Los Angeles, is often a place an artist starting out will go to break into the American music scene.
This album does add to Daniel Merriweather’s meta-narrative as it shows us his style and what he is up to. The fact that he is featured on the album cover adds to his meta-narrative as it shows the style he is into. The location adds to the meta-narrative as it shows he would like to become famous in America, this adds to his meta-narrative as it shows what he will be doing in the next period of his career. This album cover will help sell his product as it shows Daniel Merriweather as an ordinary guy, so it helps people relate to him. People can also relate with what he is trying to do, which would be achieve the ‘American dream’. This album cover reinforces capitalism; which is the dominant ideology in Western countries, which is where the album will be predominantly sold, so this is another way that people can connect with him. As Richard Dyer said in his book ‘Stars’, the star must be ordinary and extraordinary at the same time. So, the star must be accessible so people can relate to them at the same time as being special so people can recognise there talents and they will be able to sell their product.
The way the print text is constructed in a way so that the title and artist is easily seen when it is on the shelves in shops, this is why they are written across the top of the album cover. Often in shops the bottom half of the album will be hidden therefore, you need the title to be at the top so the album is easily identifiable.
Well done Mark, this is well observed with a successful use of critical theory.
ReplyDelete4-